James Reimer and Matt Frattin of the Toronto Maple Leafs look for a rebound with Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins on the doorstep during Game 4 of the NHL Eastern Conference quarterfinals at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, May 8, 2013. (DAVE ABEL/QMI Agency)

TORONTO - It was close, so excruciatingly close, to being worth the wait.

The wait of nine long years for playoff hockey to electrify the Air Canada Centre like it did throughout a long and brilliant Wednesday night.

The wait of three periods plus, an unfolding drama that had the Torono Maple Leafs and their sellout crowd of 19,708 supporters convinced it was going to end the right way.

Instead, it concluded with a colossal blunder by Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf at the Boston Bruins blueline, leading to a two-on-one and overtime heartbreaker by Boston scoring machine David Krecji to give the visitors a 4-3 victory.

The winning goal, at 13:06 of the extra period, sent the Bruins home for Game 5 with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven NHL Eastern Conference quarterfinal and the Leafs teetering on the cliff of elimination after a game and desperate effort came up just short.

"On the bench, to be honest, we felt it was just a matter of time before we got one," said Leafs forward Joffrey Lupul, who saw two of his teammates ring shots off the post in a wildly-entertaining overtime period. "So obviously it hurts a lot, but the series isn't over."We're not done yet."